How do I stop Group Policy from uninstalling Symantec AV

I wanted to uninstall Symantec AV ver 9 from our network. It was being deployed from the "Default Domain Policy" GPO. I deleted it from the GPO and it asked something to the effect of "Do you want to remove all installations" and I said yes. The problem is when someone restarts their computer it tries to unistall everytime they reboot. Obviously this is not working correctly. So, how do I stop this unistall process. The installer package is still in place and I tried to receate it. But all that does is when someone reboots, it uninstalls then reinstalls, so that is not the answer. What am I missing here?

I had seen that response before I posted my question. This is at the Default Domain Policy so there is no way to escape the effects by creating a test OU and moving the computers there like the article suggests. Am I correct in thinking this?

Also, I located the .AAS file in the SYSVOL policies folder, can I just delete (or move) it. Will this eliminate the unistalling procedure at boot up?

Did you try the second part of what he suggested? The user asking that question had done it int he default domain policy too.

If you still have the problem....
These two steps should relieve your current problem of locking up while trying to uninstall.

1) Add the package back into the Default GPO Making sure the uninstall if out of scope option is un-checked and allow it to install.
2) After all deployments are updated delete the package from the Default GPO as you did before. This should leave the software but remove any referance to it from your Default GPO.

I found out what the problem was. Basically Group Policy could not uninstall the Symantec AV because we had a password that blocked the removal of the software from the client machine. Once we removed the software, it uninstalled correctly as it was intended. Problem solved.

This process allows computer passwords to be managed and secured without using LAPS. This is an improvement on an existing process, enhanced to store password encrypted, instead of clear-text files within SQL

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